If none of the above tips get your database loading time down, the next thing to look at is how heavily you've been making use of the Clippings and Attachments features.

The database on your phone is the same as the database on your Mac, but the device you're using to process that data is much slower and has a lot less memory.

Any attached images, documents, or files included in the database on the Mac probably won't cause any delay there, but may very well do so on the phone. The file attachments may be a few big files (PDFs, pictures, or documents) or it could be a large number of small files (a couple hundred clipped emails with a graphic attachment that duplicates someone's signature).

Note: OmniFocus for Mac 1.7 added a new "Attachment List" item under the Window menu which can be useful here. It'll show you all the attachments in your database, when they were added, and how large they are. It'll also let you delete attachments you don't really need from the database. This reduces the size of the database being synced to the phone.

If the previous steps don't help enough, there's one more thing that can help.

Note: to avoid the possibility of losing data, you want to fully sync your devices before trying this!

Open OmniFocus' Sync Preferences on one of your Macs. (All your devices are up to date, right?)

Press the "Show Clients" button. A new sheet appears.

You'll see a list in the middle of the new sheet: select each item, then press the Unregister button. Keep doing so until the list is completely empty; you even want to unregister the Mac you're doing this from.

Once the clients list is empty, close the sheet.

Finally, press the Sync Now button.

When you press the button, OmniFocus will compact your database as much as possible, then send the smallest possible database up to your server.

The next time you sync your other devices, they may ask if you want to use the Server database or their own. You want to say "Server" in all cases - this is why it's important to fully sync your devices before starting this process. You're setting aside the larger database on the device and using the smaller one on the server instead.

If at this point you still suspect that this issue is hurting performance on the iPhone, send an email to the support ninjas and we can help.

Last edited by Brian; 2010-09-08 at 12:11 PM..
Reason: Add info on the "unregister everything and re-sync" process.